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The Iron Sun Company: "Immortals"
Those in the Iron Sun Company are well known for being self-serving and self-centered by nature. The genejack treatment they originally received was a long-term evolutionary one. It was created with the goal in mind of becoming immortal. With their cybernetic brain augmentations and low transplant rejection rate, the resource they treasure most is a healthy new host body when the old one gives out. This augmentation precludes them from ever becoming Psionicists, which politically places them at odds of the Magocracy of Trent '''in a one-sided conflict that has gone on for as long as the '''Founding Minds have lived. Like immortal vampires, they live lives spanning centuries, ignoring what they consider to be trivial mortal concerns and focusing on long term goals and dividends. They hoard wealth and then spend it in extravagant bursts of fancy as a way to feel relevant. Such sycophantic revelries are most common in the highest echelons of their social rankings. Those given the rare and insanely valuable Immortal genejack serum still require gratuitous cybernetic medical operations during their lifespan. They call this first phase of existence their first life. These are called First Lifers. This is a lower caste of their society. In order to be fully accepted into the full Immortal community of currently exactly eight hundred and ninety members, they must, in addition to undergoing the cybernetic procedures at the appropriate times in life to become an immortal cybernetic brain, must have contributed greatly to the Immortal cause by being a great person. This means those of their society are elitist to the extreme. If you aren't a great artist, architect, thinker, or leader, they have no desire to see you graduate to the status of full immortal. The aspirant First Lifers have become extremely competitive and even cutthroat in their senior years. Some are obsessed with having the perfect augmentations in their first life that will give them the greatest edge over other candidates. Some have gone as far as impersonating other great people and taking credit for the works of others who are not even immortals. This makes potentially every First Lifer a glory-hounding narcissist. The society keeps track of their fellow immortals, so impersonating an actual ascended Immortal would be difficult, except for the fact that most of them have myriad body doubles in order to prevent being assassinated and replaced. This creates a diplomatic minefield wherever an Immortal is said to be. Because of the wealth and power of these people, many highborn and dignified persons seek favor with them. It is the case that only said favor can be granted by the original Immortal and you can never be sure of one's true identity. This giant diplomatic nightmare does provide plenty of societal opportunities for First Lifers, though, who will generally choose one of the 890 to imitate and potentially become a double of that true Immortal. This life requires so much study and obsessive stalking of the original Immortal, though. On the extremely dark side of this society, particularly because of trying to ensure a new host body for an Immortal's brain, there is a historical morass of evil human trafficking and illegal cloning technology. This has been reduced in recent years because of the advent of synthetic biological machines called Bioroids that fulfill the role of a healthy human body. This technology is both illegal and highly controversial in every circle both for good and evil reasons. The genejack serum that produces an Immortal First Lifer has specific key factors. One is that it increases the success rate of cybernetic brain enhancements. Another is that the brain is so altered by the initial implantation that an Intellect program, otherwise known as an Artificial Intelligence, must be uploaded in order for the child to even be able to control their motor functions. This means the parents are directly able to program their child's development. It also means that if the child begins to develop contrary to the implantation, even psychic abilities, they will experience a conflict with their base programming that causes a irreparable fracturing of the human psyche and usually results in death. This means that the parents have to have their children genetically profiled before deciding to parent one in order to create a compatible program. This medical practice has been honed to an art-form by many of the Immortal 890, or at least that is what is believed to happen. This process has never been reportedly observed by an outsider. The statistics of a First Lifer Immortal are rolled by the Storyteller. They are also the only characters who can enter the Nobility career as their first career choice, but they must choose the path of Dilettante.